Today we are getting together to bottle apples from my garden. I’ll resist serving cake as we are joining another friend later for dinner but a gin & tonic might be a nice reward when all the apples are peeled and done.

And I think this dress I’ve unearthed from the back of the wardrobe might just be my new favourite!

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On a Sunday morning walk I came across a Rowan Tree. I didn’t know that was what it was at the time and needed to do a bit of sleuthing when I got home.

It was the pink tinged white berries that caught my eye. I immediately thought of them as perfect for strands of ‘pearls’ for my garden fairy and picked a few sprigs to bring home to play with.

Walking back down my path to the front door I passed the hydrangeas, they too are tinged pink and the russet tones they start to turn as they dry out with the onset of Autumn.

I decided to combine them in a floral arrangement using my ikebana vase and included some cuttings from one of my plum trees.

Inspired by a post on the blog pbm Garden for ‘In A Vase On Monday’ I twisted the plum stems into a knot, soaking them in hot water to soften them up beforehand.

It’s a while since I’ve used this vase – it requires such a different approach to flower arrangement so I experimented with several ideas and I think this one is my favourite.

And then I got a needle and thread to string some garden pearls.‘In a Vase on Monday’ was started by Cathy. She invites you to join her challenge to find something from the garden to put in a vase each week – what ever the season. So why not get inspired and share your vase arrangement in the comment section of her blog Rambling In The Garden.

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I don’t normally use the word holiday when I make trips to Sydney as it’s my original ‘hometown’ so in a sense it feels more like returning.

But this trip Mr Petal & Pins and I played tourist with a visit to the Botanical Gardens, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and a day exploring the coastline in the Royal National Park.

Knowing that when we got back to Hobart the cooler nights and crisper mornings of autumn would have set in, we were determined to take advantage of Sydney’s still summer like temperatures to spend lots of time at the beach swimming and lazing in the sun.

We spent several afternoons exploring around the rocks and venturing as far as we dared to watch the waves breaking. I’d forgotten how wonderful the rock pools in Sydney are with their miniature sea gardens. It brought back memories of exploring them as a child, eyes on the lookout for red centred sea anemone, crabs and the notorious blue ringed octopus.

With Blackwoods Beach on our doorstep, we wandered down at dawn for me to draw in the blank canvas of sand left by the tide while Mr Petal & Pins took photographs. We were treated to a colourful sunrise and a double rainbow.

It was so much fun we decided to do it again the following morning, inviting a friend to join us. Marg turned up with a rake as her drawing implement and a bunch of Moonflowers that had opened the previous night for me to turn into Garden Fairy dresses.
Collaborating with her on the beach drawing proved to be even more fun. Our activity piqued the interest of early morning walkers on the cliff top path above and Mr Petal & Pins photographed our progress.